Get to Know Three of our 2024-2025 Grant Partners (Part 2)

The Sabin Vaccine Institute, in collaboration with UNICEF, is proud to provide funding to 7 grant partners awarded through the 2024-2025 Social and Behavioral Research Grants Program. This blog is the third in a series introducing the seven teams that make up this year’s cohort. You can meet our project teams in the Asian and Western Pacific region, here!

Meet Our Project Teams in the Asian and Western Pacific Region!

Indonesia

Principal investigator, Dr. Asri Adisasmita, will lead a team in conducting a study within Serang City, Banten Province, which is situated in the westernmost part of Java Island and having only 24.7% of children reaching complete essential immunization and one-in-ten children aged 12-23 months being zero-dose.  Through an in-depth analysis of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) amongst parents / child caregivers and health workers, the team will obtain an understanding of health information-seeking and vaccination behaviors, including uptake of routine immunization, and identify the key barriers to immunization within these populations. Trusted health information messengers identified within the community will then be invited to co-design and pilot a community-responsive intervention to overcome challenges to vaccination. Aiming to provide evidence-based recommendations to improve immunization policy and program design, the team plans to hold dissemination meetings and workshops with Provincial and District Health Offices. Other team members include co-investigators Evi Martha, Mondastri Korib S, Trisari Anggondowati, Putri Bungsu Mahmud, and Septyana Choirunnisa.

“The research grant will support a study that will identify factors (both barriers as well as facilitators) related to the success of complete vaccination for children. In addition, the study will also identify messengers from local community who are expected to be able to educate and influence parents and children’s caregivers to be willing to immunize their children. A community-based intervention strategies will be conducted using the identified messengers, who will be trained using an approach that incorporate local wisdoms, to improve vaccination acceptance, hence improve complete routine immunization coverage among children. This community-based intervention strategies will be expected to enhance immunization policy and programming at the local level and other areas that have similar characteristics.” 

Pakistan

Along with her team, Dr. Omera Naseer, NIH Pakistan, aims to identify and assess the impact of locally tailored community co-designed social and behavior change communication (SBCC) interventions using a human centered designed (HCD) approach, to improve vaccination-related health outcomes and vaccination practices in two urban slums of South Karachi. First, using the World Health Organization (WHO) cluster vaccination coverage survey methodology, a rapid community assessment will deploy a semi-structured KAP questionnaire with parents / child caregivers of children less than two years of age. To complement this assessment and provide richness to the dataset, focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth-interviews (IDIs) will be conducted with community members and community influencers including youth groups, healthcare workers at EPI facilities, and administrative staff. Upon completion of pilot testing the questionnaire, field teams will be trained on collecting data from the respondents in the local language to standardize the data collection. Evidence of the pilot co-designed intervention will be shared through a dissemination seminar with the community, provincial Ministry of Health, and other key stakeholders. Dr. Muhammad Salman and Hajra Arshad are the co-principal investigators of this study.

“By informing vaccination policy and programming with evidence-based, community-driven approaches, this research grant can contribute to more effective and equitable vaccination initiatives, ultimately leading to better health outcomes for vulnerable populations. Moreover, the community co-designed initiatives will be more effective as the community will own those interventions, fostering greater engagement and commitment. This sense of ownership will lead to more impactful and sustainable solutions for better vaccine uptake.”   

Philippines

A team of investigators, led by Dr. Theresa M. Rivera and Dr. Naomi M. Sotto- Nocheseda, from Far East University aim to assess the socioeconomic factors influencing routine immunization uptake in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA) of the Philippines. This study will identify the circulating mis/disinformation around routine immunization and associated information-seeking and vaccination decision-making behavior among parents / child caregivers in these areas. Utilizing the WHO Behavioral and Social Drivers of Immunization (BeSD) framework, the team will employ a mix of quantitative surveys and qualitative key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) to gather data to inform the co-design, development, and implementation of an SBCC campaign with identified community influencers. Evidence of this study will be shared with the Municipal and Provincial Health Units of Nueva Ecija and the Epidemiology Bureau of the Department of Health.  The team also consists of co-investigators, Dr. John Yason, Benni Doloiras, Flordeliz Abanto, Dr. Augustus Cesar Latosa, Olive Grace Antig, Dr. Cerelyn Evangelista Dacula, and Dr. Eva Ilagan Bautista.

“The research will generate evidence-based catch-up strategies to inform policy decisions, enabling health authorities to implement effective approaches to reach zero-dose children efficiently. Through collaboration with local immunization programs, civil society organizations, and health departments, it can facilitate stakeholder engagement, ensuring that policy recommendations are practical and contextually relevant. Given the impact of COVID-19 on routine childhood immunization, this research grant provides an opportunity to adapt strategies in a post-pandemic world. It can guide policymakers in addressing vaccination gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, delve into the reasons why some children miss routine vaccinations and understand these barriers (such as access issues, misinformation, or cultural beliefs), so policymakers can design targeted interventions to address them.”